Use One Skill to Execute Multiple Chosen Skills

[The Real Sye]

Howdy!

My question is simple: Is it possible to have a single skill execute multiple skills that the player selects, dynamically?

For the sake of an example, setting a couple definitions for this purpose:

• Multi-execute skill can be called "Combo"
• There exists Skill 1, Skill 2, Skill 3, Skill 4

Players may select Skill 1, Skill 2, Skill 3, or Skill 4 individually in combat. These have discrete effects and costs.

Character reaches arbitrary level and gains "Combo" skill, which lets them activate two skills at the same time.

Player may select Combo and activate Skill 1 and Skill 4 as a single action, executing them in sequence from which they were selected.

This would have use if, say.. Skill 1 upped accuracy for the full round and did a low-damage attack, and then Skill 4 was a high-damage/low-accuracy attack. Skill 1 does damage with an accuracy boost, and grants the accuracy boost to Skill 4 because it all happens in the same combat round.

On the following round, Player may select Combo and activate Skill 2 and Skill 1, in that order. Skill 2 may have an effect to.. Oh, make an attack drain HP from the enemy. Since Skill 2 was activated first, it would apply the drain HP to Skill 1's attack, because both are done in the same combat round.

Is this sort of thing doable with the default assets present in RMMV? And if so, how?

 

[Renseiryuu]

Hmm, I believe you could try using Action times +. You could set it as a character/class trait, or as a state.

Since you want to do a combo up to 4 skills, then set 4 action times there. The character will then move 4 times in a single turn.

Edit: To apply special trait such as accuracy boost and hp drain on the next skill, I believe we could experiment by using multiple states. For example, when using Skill 1 (the one that raise your accuracy), set it so that it would inflict "accuracy buff" to user while also damaging the enemy.

This could be done by changing the skill formula, btw. For example:

a.addState(X); a.atk * 4 - b.def * 2;

This would inflict state X to a (user), before dealing damage to the enemy. Change the X into the state ID of your "accuracy buff" state.

 

[The Real Sye]

Well, to be a skosh more explicit, I want to have a martial artist-type of actor. This character gains different skills per level -- Things like Jab, Front Kick, Cross, etc. These skills may be used individually, for different effect.

Jab, for example, is a move that would increase accuracy for that turn only, and do low physical damage.
Kick would decrease defense until the character's next turn, but do a high amount of physical damage at a low-to-mid accuracy.
Cross would be a low-accuracy attack that does moderate physical damage.

At a certain level, they would gain some sort of skill -- Let's call it "Combo Chain (x2)" -- that would let them use these attacks together. Combo Chain (x2) would allow the chaining of two skills. At a later level, Combo Chain (x3) would be unlocked, allowing three skills to be chained.

A character with Combo Chain (x2) may, as an example, use Jab and Cross. The way this ideally would work is that Jab goes first -- This increases character accuracy for the duration of their combat round, and does physical damage. Then, Cross would kick off. Normally, Cross would be low-accuracy, but Jab provides a blanket increased-accuracy to all attacks that followed it. This would let Cross have a better chance to hit, doing moderate damage.

Alternatively, perhaps they do Jab, then Kick. Jab resolves as normal, and when Kick comes around the character has a better chance of landing the attack. The defense decrease from Kick would still apply.

If they had Combo Chain (x3), perhaps they try Jab, Jab, Cross. This would provide two stacked accuracy boosts, making Cross way more likely to happen.

There would be other skills to the whole thing, but essentially, the goal would be to simulate a degree of martial arts attacks. Some of the other skills may do things like apply HP Drain to the character's attacks -- Let's call it "Vampire Strike" for the sake of things.

If the character did Combo Chain (x3) with Vampire Strike, Jab, and Cross, then they would have an attack doing HP drain, then Jab gives the accuracy boost and HP drain, and Cross gets the accuracy boost, HP drain, and its own native moderate-damage attack.

Or maybe the person does Jab, Vampire Strike, Cross. That gets accuracy boost on the first, accuracy boost and HP drain on the second, and the third attack has accuracy boost, HP drain, and its moderate damage.

Or just do Cross, Cross, Cross. All three are low-accuracy, moderate damage. Maybe not the smartest, but hey, it's possible.

Would Action States + still be viable for this? It seems like it might be useful, at a glance, but it doesn't seem compatible with YEP. That'd be an issue on my end -- I already have plans in place that require YEP for the rest of the game.

 

[Renseiryuu]

Hmm, I haven't tried using any plugin yet (YEP here is Yanfly plugin, I think?), so I'm afraid I couldn't tell whether it would be compatible or not. But Action States + is just a feature from the RPG Maker itself, so I can't see why it would cause any problem XD.

I think I understand the need here:
1. Call skill "Combo"
2. Skill will let player choose several attack skills (for now let's say that there are several attack skills available)
3. Attack skills will each buff user accordingly for a single turn (Kick will give accuracy buff, Vampire strike will give hp drain buff, etc)
4. And WHAM! those skills will be activated in a chain.

The problem would be... to call step 2, it requires Combo skill to open skill menu and then choose the attack skills that are going to be chained into. I was thinking that perhaps using common event could somehow did it, but decided that it was too limited in use. What if user decided to change the attack chain order? What if the user decided to cancel using Combo? I don't think using common event is the answer.

To solve this, I believe the default feature that could do this best would be Action States +. It just that the problem is that Action States + would also let the user to use item or guard (or even escape). So yeah, it could get messy quick.

 

[The Real Sye]

Maybe I read something wrong, somewhere? I got the impression AS+ was separate from RMMV. In my defense, I did look it all up just after finishing a 5 hour drive, so.. Might be a bit derpy. Clearly more reading is needed on my part. Also, yeah, YEP is Yanfly Engine Plugin. I read some post somewhere suggesting that AS+ was poorly coded and not integrated for use with YEP.. .. Yeah, 5 hour drive. I definitely need to be a bit more decompressed before I try to piece stuff together.

As far as your understanding of what I'm saying.. The 1-4 you listed, yup. That's accurate. "Chain" would be exactly the right word.

Yes, Step 2 would require opening the skill menu, then selecting the commands you want. The goal would be that you can select them in sequence, and the order you select them determines the order they go off in the chain. I would say, as another example, this time by way of what I'd expect of it in a modern console game:

"Okay, I'm selecting Combo (x3). I'm going to select Jab.. Then I'm going to select Kick.. Oh, crap, I selected Cross by mistake. Okay, press [B, circle, whatever] to go back.. Select Kick.. And, y'know, yeah, I'll go with Cross. Now, select [A, x button, whatever] and that starts the attack chain."

The skills that could be selected would be those reserved explicitly for, just keeping the theme here, those that are tagged as "Martial Arts" or somesuch. That would, I think, prevent things like standard "Attack," "Guard," or "Escape."

For what it's also worth, I'm largely novice in RMMV. Really just starting to get my feet wet. I understand what I'm asking is likely a bit more of an advanced thing, and that's fine by me -- I tend to learn systems better when I have (what seems to be) a reasonable goal in mind, and I can implement it in practice, and then pick apart what makes it tick. It's a weird learning methodology, but hey, it works for me and tends to ensure I retain information better.

So, uh, bear with me a bit, please.

 

[artoni]

Skill Extender might work as a base, but I'm not sure if it only allows one extra input or if it lets you do more than one. Maybe you could commission someone to adapt it?

 

[The Real Sye]

That looks promising as a starting point, as well. It looks like just the single input.. But I have some ideas for mangling something into usability, depending on how it functions; I have a fair amount of experiencing rigging things up in weird ways.

Worst case scenario, it gives me a springboard to sink my teeth into coding. Maybe.

If there's any other suggestions, or anything that absolutely definitively does what I'm describing, I'm open to 'em. There's a lot of resources in the community, and trying to sift through it all.. Well, while it's possible, I've ever found it easier to just throw the question out there and see if anyone who already knows the answer is around to toss it out there.

In any event, many thanks to both artoni and Renseiryuu! Your responses are awesomely appreciated.